CINDE Announces: In the last two years INTEL invested close to USD $1billion in Costa Rica and officially inaugurated an Assembly and Test plant

• During the pandemic, hirings have surpassed 1750 new workforce additions.
• Today, a significant share of the product units are produced and shipped to different clients world-wide since

HEREDIA, Costa Rica, Aug. 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of Intel's celebration of its 25^th anniversary in Costa Rica, the company officially inaugurated the Assembly and Test factory located in San Antonio de Belen. The event counted with the participation of Costa Rica's president, Rodrigo Chaves, and several of his ministers.

The manufacturing facilities in the country started to operate with assembly and test end-to-end processes in September 2021 (testing operation exportations began during April 2020), but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the site had not been officially inaugurated.

Today, a significant share of server units products offered by Intel to global markets are tested, and shipped in Costa Rica, this increases the relevance of local operations within Intel's IDM 2.0 global strategy. These operations are part of the Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Operations organization of the company. Once the manufacturing process of silicon wafers is completed at Intel fabs, the components are cut off and shipped into a center of assembly and test. Each chip is assembled inside a package that protects and allows it to connect to other components. Finally, its functionality is tested out.

"Costa Rica is a fitting location for this important expansion of our assembly and test operations. The work we do here is critical to rebalancing the global semiconductor supply chain and supplying the industry with much-needed chips," said Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel. "We appreciate the partnership, passion, and commitment from the government, the community, and the local ecosystem since we opened our first operation 25 years ago and look forward to many more."

Through all its 25 years of operations, today Intel Costa Rica has the biggest and complex logistics: a workforce that surpasses 3700 collaborators, job opportunities for more than 5600 contingent workers, 26.000 square meters across its plant, and 17.000 square meters of multioperation engineering laboratories centered in software, hardware, and platforms, as well as the most specialized service center of its time.

Rodrigo Chaves, President of the Republic, shared, "For our country, being able to count on Intel these last 25 years has been a blessing, because the jobs generated by this company have translated into benefits for the entire country. This 25-year commitment between Costa Rica and Intel is strengthened with the inauguration of this Assembly and Test plant. This also tells us that there is outstanding human talent in the country to enhance the technologies of companies of this type". 

Operations are consolidating 
Keyvan Esfarjani, Chief Global Operations Officer and Executive Vice President of Intel, shared, "The Intel Costa Rica team is a critical part of Intel's global assembly and test manufacturing, and I am proud of them for achieving this 25-year milestone. It is a testament to the world-class execution of our teams. In addition, I appreciate our strong partnerships with the government and our suppliers." The factory is continuing to progress with the installation of the necessary equipment to reach its maximum capacity, including edge technologies with prediction capabilities, robotics, and autonomous management, giving an impulse to the region's 4.0 industry.

This growth has been possible thanks to different factors, such as the existing infrastructure, the synergy with already established operations in the site, human talent, the regime of free zone and juridical certainty, which gave Intel a favorable option to amplify its capacity in Costa Rica.

The Minister of Foreign Trade, Manuel Tovar, said, "25 years ago, Intel chose Costa Rica to be its home. The talent of many Costa Ricans launched the operations of this company, which today confirms, that the decision of choosing our country was the correct one. From the Assembly and Test Operations Plant in Costa Rica, products are manufactured and exported to many corners of the world and have allowed the country to occupy important positions in increasingly sophisticated global value chains".

He also mentioned that, "the company's three centers of excellence in the country generates around 3,500 direct, quality jobs for Costa Ricans, which translates into opportunities, development and well-being for many families".

High-value operations
"We create world-changing technology that improves the lives of every person on the planet, The passion, commitment, and innovation of Costa Rican talent have been crucial for this evolution, which allow us to keep increasing our value for the corporation through our three centers of excellence, generating a positive impact. The country must continue promoting its competitiveness constantly as it happens in the rest of the world", said Ileana Rojas, Design Engineering Group and General Manager, Intel Costa Rica.

For his part, Chairman of the Board of CINDE, Eric Scharf, added, "This Intel growth is one more proof of the capacity of Costa Rican talent and our favorable investment climate for carrying out assembly and testing operations in Costa Rica to meet the strong global demand for semiconductors. We congratulate Intel on the official inauguration of this plant. We also acknowledge its significant mark on the country as a promoter of technology transfer, positioning us as a key destination for foreign direct investment (FDI)".

Intel Costa Rica counts on three big centers of excellence:

1.  The Center of Research & Development (R&D): Currently the biggest engineering hub and the major exporter of these services across the country, dedicated to designing, prototype, testing and validation of integrated circuits solutions, software and platforms. Here 48% of the workforce is employed.

2.  Assembly and Testing of Chips: here 27% of the Manufacture and Supply Chain organization is hired, and it performs assembly, testing of server products offered by Intel at the market.

3.  The Center of Global Services: designs, performs and transforms multifunctional business processes at a global scale across Finance, Human Resources, Sales and Marketing and supply chain offering high value in innovation and business transformation. Costa Rica is the major finance hub in the corporation with more than 440 employees working on finance modernization globally. Here other 25% of the workforce is employed.

Commitment with the country
Besides the operations, Intel continues to invest in the country and its people. For this year, the goal is to reach 1000 students with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programs through a donation of more than $100 thousand dollars to advance education across this area, from school and his schools to higher education. Also, Intel donated 16 robotic arms and the necessary training for educational instructors in charge of professional technical college equipment in the country, in order to improve the learning of students in matters of robotics and programming.

Currently and in the upcoming months it is expected that there will be about 100 open positions in areas such as production technicians, manufacturing and maintenance supervisors, process engineers, among other activities required in the assembly and testing fab. Additionally, there are job opportunities available with the student-worker program. All the requirements can be consulted only at www.intel.com/jobs.

SOURCE CINDE